


In Death's Arms

by Quantum_Overload



Series: Forgotten Files [5]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Constructive Criticism Welcome, How Do I Tag, I'm Bad At Tagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28519854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quantum_Overload/pseuds/Quantum_Overload
Summary: Siana takes confronting the ghosts of her past to the literal, most extreme level.
Relationships: Original Female Character & Original Male Character
Series: Forgotten Files [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2089077





	In Death's Arms

The gravel pathway crunched softly under the shifting soles of her shoes. The sound enveloped the deathly quiet; deafening. Siana plodded her way down the trail towards the uniform fields of grain, followed respectfully by a ghostly, primaeval entity. She stopped before the field, her feet toeing the divide between the grass and gravel.

“There's no need for you to do this,” her companion reasoned, his voice deep and melodious but tinged with an unaccustomed concern, “The price you've agreed to pay will be enough.”

Siana turned her head slightly, glimpsing her escort in the corner of her blue eyes. He was tall, with skin like dark teak and massive wings the shades of midnight. He was beautiful, but not in the way someone would describe a person as beautiful-tangible and fleeting. He was beautiful in the way someone would describe the sky as beautiful-eternal and unattainable. And while he was certainly eternal he wasn't unattainable; everyone reached him, eventually.

“I know. But I do need to do this, for me,” Siana replied, eyes flickering forwards, her back still to her companion, “I need closure.”

Resigned, Siana's companion dipped his head and struck the ground with the wooden shaft of his scythe; the hardwood meeting stone like a judge's gavel on its stand. Fog rolled in from both sides across the dull gold grass as curling and cascading waves rushing up to shore. Before her, the two waves crashed together into a light mist, the edges of the water vapour rising into a wall against the fog.

A pale figure drifted towards the edge of the field through the path of stilled mist, parting the tall grass as she went. She was draped in a shapeless white dress that extended down to her feet, the frills that covered them dirtied and dulled. The spirit stilled before Siana, her short black hair dancing to an imaginary song.

"Hello mother," Siana stated, wrangling her emotions into a box so that her tone remained even. Confusion shone in the woman's eyes before recognition took its place.

"Darling, beloved daughter! It has been far too long!" the shade cried, voice saccharine yet hollow, "You have grown so much, and now you have come to bargain for your dearest mother's release from death."

The mother reached her hand out as if to touch her daughter's cheek, but as soon as her fingers passed the boundary between the field and gravel they dispersed into mist. The ghost was so mystified by her predicament that she didn't notice Siana flinch away from her fingers. Siana's companion however did. He brought his weapon to the gravel once more, the same sound from before ringing out once again.

"Speak plainly spirit, we don't have time for your delusions," his voice echoed, causing the spirit to flinch back into the field slightly.

"Take it down a notch Thanatos," Siana mumbled, tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling.

“What is that blasted wraith on ab-”

“I'm not here for you mother! I'm not Orpheus. I'm Odysseus, I'm here looking for answers,” Siana interrupted sharply, glaring at her mother.

“Answers? You don't deserve answers!” the late mother howled like a twisted, demented banshee, “If you aren't here to benefit me, then what good are you!”

“Did you ever love me?”

Upon hearing the question the mother started cackling. Then, she turned on her daughter with a hard glare.

“I gave everything for your father! I loved him! I thought he loved me too, and he would have! I... No, he did love me! He did love me, and he would have kept loving me if it wasn't for you! I lost my powers because of you. I was left with nothing because you were born, and no one was there to support me. Everything in my life broke apart when you were born.

“So did I love you? No. I never did. I can't. And it's all. Your. Fault,” The ghost ranted, transitioning from manic shrieking to hardened contempt. Siana's eyes were wide with shock, she blinked once then twice as she registered what her mother had claimed. Then, her eyes sharpened, a fire roaring behind them while her body went lax.

“No,” Siana argued, voice unwavering and eyes bearing down on her mother's translucent form, “I never did anything, I was just a little girl. You were, who you were and there was nothing I did or could have done to change that. I see that now.

“I came here thinking that if I could forgive you it would bring me peace. But after hearing what you had to say? I can't, I can't forgive you.

“But I won't let you control the rest of my life either.”

Enraged, the spirit lunged forwards, her hands and forearms turning to wispy mist as they crossed the field's threshold. Siana, however, stood firm and simply swiped her arm through the ghostly form of her mother, banishing the spirit back to where it came from. With the ghost gone Thanatos struck his weapon to the ground a third time, dismissing the ocean of mist and fog from the field. Siana let out a stilted breath, her shoulders shaking as her anger left her. Thanatos tilted his head questioningly, shifting his posture slightly as if ready to move closer to her.

“I-it makes me feel better... knowing I had nothing to do with what she did. I-I always thought that it was my fault somehow, but it's not. I didn't do anything,” Siana breathed before she turned around to face the embodiment of Death for the first time since they began this excursion. Her cheeks were flushed with spent heat and her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. Her breathing was carefully heavy, though it was betrayed by fits of stuttered chokes. Tears welled in her eyes as she continued pleadingly, “I failed. I didn't forgive her, I-I couldn't. But, I'm not angry anymore. I... I've been angry for so long. Why am I not angry anymore?”

Thanatos set aside his weapon and took a few uncertain steps towards his new charge.

“Perhaps you aren't angry anymore because you were never angry at her, to begin with. Perhaps, all that anger you felt, was directed at yourself?”

“What do I do now?” She croaked out sounding, for once, like the lost broken child she really was.

“In all that time you thought about forgiving her, did you ever consider... Forgiving yourself?”

Siana took a quiet gasp of breath, clarity sparking in her eyes before, finally, those gleaming tears began to spill from them; torrents of salty water running over her cheeks to the point of her chin. Her shoulders were shaking with silent sobs that wracked her body until it was too much and she launched herself around Thanatos' waist. Carefully, he lowered them to the ground, rubbing comforting circles in his charge's back as she continued to weep. They stayed for a while as Siana let out a decade's worth of pain and grief.

When she had run out of tears to shed she was just about exhausted. Readjusting her position so that he was leaning more of her weight against her companion she hugged him tighter, his hands coming to a stop on her lower back in response. She smiled, really smiled, as if nothing could bring her down anymore and curled into the cool embrace of Death incarnate as she drifted off. It was in Death's arms that she was finally able to find peace within herself.


End file.
